Getting Bored

I've realized months ago that low carb works for me but I get bored with it. I need new ideas that aren't too complicated. I do not eat beef or pork so meat is generally limited to what I can find that is kosher and humanly raised - chicken and maybe some turkey.

I don't eat meat and dairy together either so though I've heard of many dishes that sound great, I can't do any of them that combine meat and dairy (fish and eggs are okay). I'm just getting bored with fish, eggs and nut butters so I need new ideas or recipes for chicken, eggs, fish, cheese and vegetables. Any advice?

I would suggest using some "dairy" substitues - like almond milks - in some of the recipes. Or some soy yogurt for sour cream. I don't know how well they work, BUT I have seen them used in recipes.

One of my favorite things is deviled eggs. Easy, portable (just stick the halves together), yummy, and can flavor them to your liking and needs.

Also, I use ground turkey pretty often for beef just because of cost. It is chili and soup season here, so a little turkey chili is a good thing. No crackers, no cheese for you, but I still like it plain. Egg drop soup should work for you. I go broth heavy, no thickeners, little chicken meat (usually some leftovers), few carrot shreds and cabbage shreds (not too many), eggs in ribbons (I've never mastered this) seasonings and a squeeze of lemon.

Hope you are still trying. It may just be a matter of adapting recipes to your needs.

I do keep almond milk and coconut milk in the house. I heard that Daiya (something like that?) brand of dairy free cheese is actually pretty good and melts easily. However I have no idea of the carb content since I've never seen the package.

Is egg drop soup pretty easy? I've never tried it.

I bought an immersion blender yesterday. I wanted it for some soups but also for mash cauliflower. It's sooooo much easier than using the food processor! I had some yesterday with sour cream which was delicious.

egg drop soup is super easy. I use either premade broth or homemade - whatever I got. Chicken is often leftovers - not too much, keep it thin. Little bit of carrot shredded and little bit of other veg - should be a thin soup so keep it little bits. I boil the heck out of it. Scramble eggs and pour into broth in ribbons. Seasoning to taste, squeeze in some lemon, serve. I don't use precise measurements much. I also have never mastered the "egg ribbons" being right, but it's the same flavor even if they flop.

Last night I whipped some natural PB, little splenda and a block of cream cheese together with the mixer. Put in greased tupperware bowl, froze, cut into cubes. It's like frozen pb fudge. That might be another idea for you. Just keep hunting for new ideas, I do it a lot instead of eating.

There is a fellow from Finland who is posting some amazing recipes he is creating around the Ideal Protein diet. IP is definitely a low carb, low fat, high protein diet and the recipes, well you have got to see them to believe them. You would never know it is diet food. His posts are on the 3 fat chicks and will it ever get you over the boredom!!

Almost anything you can do with beef and pork, you can also do with poultry and fish, so don't be afraid to adapt recipes to what you do eat.

For example, I brown ground meat and seasoning veggies with dry tvp granules (a soy protein that looks sort of like grapenuts cereal that is rehydrated with water) then add hot broth to reconstitute- to give it the taste of the primary meat. I usually do this with ground beef and pork - but it works equally well with ground chicken. Then I freeze this ground mixture in a ziploc bag (shakeing or gently smooshing the bag around every half hour or so, so that it freezes in scoopable crumbles).

Then I have something that I can quickly use in other low-carb recipes. I can add a low-carb barbecue sauce, or use it in mock-fried rice (using grated cauliflower in place of rice), I can put it in broth with vegetables to make a soup (mixing and matching the vegetables, broth, and seasonings). For example I might use chicken broth as the base and seaon it American-style or asian. Or I might use V-8 mixed with the chicen broth and season it either "American vegetable soup" style or might add taco/chili seasonings (I also freeze black beans and pinto beans by the same shake-and-freeze method. Most beans have as much starch as protein, so you have to use them sparingly inf you're extremely carb-sensitive).

I like to simmer light, flaky fish in butter, garlic and chicken or vegetable broth. Or I'll omit the butter and make a "fish salad" (like chicen salad or crab salad).

Simmering sauces in general can greatly change the flavor of proteins. My husband and I are very frugal shoppers, so we buy what we can find at a very good price. This means our most common proteins are chicken and fish (chicken because it's cheap and fish because we get it free from my husband's father whose main hobby year-round is fishing).

If it weren't for creative simmering sauces, and condiments I would be bored out of my mind.

Some ways to vary the taste of chicken or fish for example

Using lower-carb salad dressings as marinades or as dipping sauces.

Using diffent broth-cubes for flavoring (asian and ethnic markets especially have a great variety). For example Knorr has a cilantro flavored bouillon cube that is just super yummy. It makes a great soup base, or main ingredient in a simmering liquid. The chipotle and garlic cubes are very good too.

Pho cubes (often available individually or in boxes of 4 to 8 at asian groceries) make a really good simmering sauce or soup. But you'll want to make sure that the cubes are marked Pho Ga (chicken) rather than Pho Ba (beef). There may be other varieties of Pho cubes too, so if you don't speak viatnamese, you may have to ask the store owner. I believe there are seafood flavors, but if you keep kosher, you want to make sure that there are no shellfish ingredients). Likewise, fish sauce makes a great condiment, but you have to check the ingredients list, because a fish sauce based on anchovies I'm guessing would be fine, but one based on fermented shrimp or crab, wouldn't be.

Pho is a viatnamese noodle soup. And it's a mildly flavored broth with flavors like anise, cilantro, and cinnamon. There are many variations, so you may love one brand or variety and not care for another (personally, I've found them all to be very good).

There are so many different flavors of broth powders and cubes, that you can make the same protein taste different every night. I prefer dark meat chicken because it's moister and more resistant to overcooking.

I make "buffalo wings" out of chicken thighs. I just buy chicken thighs (bone-in or boneless, with or without the skin). I cut each thigh in halves or thirds, depending on the size, and make the cuts parallel to the bone, if there is one). Then I marinate the meat (for anywhere from an hour to overnight) and then bake or broil (skin side up, if I leave the skin on).

I've got tons of different marinades.

Italian dressing

Hot sauce (usually with garlic powder and sometimes a bit of Splenda)

Ranch dressing (I know true ranch dressing made from buttermilk wouldn't be kosher, but I also use mayonaise mixed with ranch dressing mix which would be. Or italian dressing with ranch dressing mix powder)

Low-carb barbecue sauce (premade or I look up a recipe online).

Sweet(Splenda)mustard (works best with a dijon-style mustard, but it's even good with hot-dog mustard).

Teriyaki (Soy sauce and splenda).

Hoisin diluted with soy sauce and fish sauce (depending on how much hoisin used, this isn't necessarily very low-carb)

Thai (fish sauce, water, and rice wine vinegar in about equal amounts and a little bit of ginger and garlic chili paste and optional Splenda to taste).

Five Spice (Soy sauce, water, and five spice powder and a dash of sesame oil).

Tangy (low-carb or low-calorie french or Western dressing and onion soup powder or dried onion flakes)

Tex-Mex (petite diced tomatoes with or without chilies - or a can of petite diced tomatoes and a can of diced green chilies - and taco seasoning).

Faux-fried (garlic mayo or ranch dressing as the marinade, and then dip the chicken pieces in seasoned flax seeds or wheat germ to form the crust. These aren't as good cold, because the coating doesn't stay crispy).

The combinations are virtually endless. And the marinades can be whipped up so quickly that I usually make at least two varieties and a baches big enough for several days of leftovers - because most of the flavors are just as good cold as hot (especially if you use skinless thighs).

There are a bazillion recipes and ideas for low-carb living at the low carb friends web site. I love some of the ideas I have gotten there. Also on Pinterest there is a thriving low-carb community and many of the recipes have photos.

I keep it really simple because I am a vegetarian low-carber and I have limited choices, plus I am on sustained induction (<20 carbs a day). But as I approach maintenance I am going to be adding a lot of recipes to my repertoire, and right now these are my main sources.

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185/131/120 ~ 5'2"

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